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A photo of Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
Olivier Douliery | Afp | Getty Images
This report is from todayās CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribeĀ here.
What you need to know today
Wall Street up, awaits inflation data
U.S. markets advancedĀ ahead of a crucial inflation report on Wednesday, despite Aprilās producer price index coming in hotter than expected. TheĀ NasdaqĀ rose to a record close, while theĀ Dow Jones Industrial AverageĀ added 126 points. TheĀ S&P 500Ā gained almost 0.5%Ā even asĀ Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank would need toĀ beĀ patienceĀ with its monetary policyĀ given stubborn inflation. The yield on the 10-yearĀ TreasuryĀ slippedĀ lower, andĀ oil pricesĀ fell.Ā Ā
Meme craze cools
Shares of GameStopĀ andĀ AMCĀ rose on Tuesday,Ā extendingĀ Mondayās gains afterĀ āRoaring KittyāĀ made a reappearance.Ā Shares,Ā however,Ā gave up some of their earlier gains, suggesting enthusiasm forĀ theĀ so-called meme stocks wasĀ fading. AMC managed toĀ raiseĀ $250 millionĀ in new capital in the midst ofĀ MondayāsĀ meme stockĀ rally. AMC endedĀ Tuesday, up 32%, while GameStop soared 60%.Ā
Alibaba sinks
Profit at e-commerce giant Alibaba fell 86% to 3.3 billion yuan ($456 million) in its fiscal fourth quarter. The Hangzhou-headquartered company is facing rising competition at home and has been ramping up its overseas operations. Alibaba had a rocky 2023 as it restructured its business. The companyās shares fell 6% in New York.Ā
Bidenās China tariffs
The Biden administrationĀ sharply increasedĀ tariffs on $18 billion of Chinese imports,Ā aimed atĀ protectingĀ U.S. industries and jobs. Tariffs on imported Chinese electric vehicles will riseĀ to 100%Ā from 25%.Ā Other productsĀ that will beĀ hit include medical needles, syringes and ship-to-shore cranes.Ā Ā
Powell: Inflation falling slowly
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said inflation was not slowing as quickly as anticipated, requiring the central bank to maintain its current interest rates for longer. āWe did not expect this to be a smooth road. But these [inflation readings] were higher than I think anybody expected,ā Powell said in Amsterdam. āWhat that has told us is that weāll need to be patient and let restrictive policy do its work.āĀ
[PRO] Hot meme stocks
Meme stocks are back in vogue with the emergence of āRoaring Kitty.ā This time, it extends beyond GameStop and AMC Entertainment. CNBCās Yun Li takes a look at stocks causing a frenzy on Reddit forum āwallstreetbets.āThe bottom line
The bottom line
Sam Altmanās OpenAI raised the bar for artificial intelligence assistants on Monday ā a move that could spell the end of Siri and Alexa. In a demonstration, it effortlessly translated Italian to English on an AppleĀ iPhone, and even solved a difficult math problem.Ā
TheĀ demo caughtĀ the attention of analysts, especially as Apple is reportedly in talks with Google and OpenAI to incorporate their technology into its AI arsenal.Ā
āWe suspect that Apple is nowhere near, internally, to what OpenAI just demoed,ā wrote Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett. āIf Google canāt match OpenAIās capabilities at I/O, then Apple will be under significant pressure to partner with OpenAI to modernize Siri for the current state of AI.āĀ
Under pressure from OpenAI, Google announced its most powerful AI model on Tuesday.Ā
It is a crucial test for Google as it goes head-to-head with OpenAI and its $10 billion backer, Microsoft. The estimated $1 trillion AI market is at stake, and Google has been caught off guard, ironically, because it has been funding and sharing much of its AI research.Ā
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has turned to British chess master and neuroscientist Demis Hassabis to spearhead the companyās AI deployment. Hassabis co-founded DeepMind, a world-leading AI lab that Google acquired for around $500 million in 2014.Ā
The other co-founder of DeepMindĀ and fellow Briton Mustafa SuleymanĀ was hired by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to lead the companyās consumer-facing AI products, including Copilot, Bing, and Edge.Ā
While the United States leads in AI, it has fallen behind in electric vehicle technology. As widely reported, President Joe Biden imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs and other technology products. While China has yet to sell a single EV in the United States, luxury Chinese EV brand Zeekr raised $441 million in its U.S. IPO last week.Ā Ā
Washington argues Beijing is subsidizing EV makers. Ahead of Bidenās announcement, Hua Chunying, Chinaās Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, posted on X, attaching a photo with a quote attributed to Janet Yellen: āWeāre explicitly subsidizing investment in these important strategic areas. We donāt want to see massive Chinese subsidies that will drive our firms out of business.āĀ
Hua responded: āTranslation: Weāll support US industries with subsidies because itās strategic, but when others do it, itās unfair competition.āĀ
Ā ā CNBCās Jeff Cox, Alex Harring, Rebecca Picciotto, Yun Li, Sam Meredith, Arjun Kharpal, Jasmine Wu, Jennifer Elias and Deidre Bosa contributed to this report.
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